The Duke said his fellow ex-Mass. governor didn’t measure up to his father, George Romney, himself a governor in Michigan:

“Mitt Romney’s the biggest disappointment I think I’ve ever seen,” he told the News Service. “He was a lousy governor. After a year and a half he just walked away from the job. He just bounces around depending on the way the wind blows.”

Dukakis, unvarnished, spoke warmly of Romney’s father George, who governed Michigan in the 1960s, noting that George Romney’s use of a fuel-efficient car inspired him to court his wife, Kitty, in a “little yellow Rambler convertible.”

“I thought we were going to get a junior version of George Romney with Mitt,” he said, adding, “There’s no core to this guy … I think he’d be a disastrous president.”

Not one for letting criticism slide, a Romney spokesman responded:

“Mike Dukakis sounds like a very angry and bitter old man,” he said. “I think it’s sad.”